During a rain delay at the 1996 tournament, Richard was asked to sing on Centre Court. “I started with Summer Holiday as a bit of a joke,” recalled Sir Cliff. “And the crowd saw the vulnerability of someone singing without any help. They were magnificent, right from the very first moment.

"The reaction was absolutely stunning. Pam Shriver, who is a friend of mine, was getting a massage downstairs and she saw me singing on the television. She said to Martina Navratilova: "This is our world, and he’s helping us out. Let’s go and help him." So then a whole gang of women came up, and they were my backing singers.”

People’s Sunday in 1991 sees queues stretch for over a mile

For the first time in the tournament’s history, there was play on the middle Sunday. After a week of bad weather, the All England Club opened the gates, with tickets to Centre Court and No 1 Court only £10 and ground-passes just £5. The queue outside the grounds was a mile and a half long.

As the rain started to fall during one of Nastase’s matches at the 1974 Championships, he borrowed an umbrella from a spectator, and then played a point while holding the brolly with one hand and a racket with the other. “I thought it would dispel the tension,” the Romanian said.

Female streaker dashes on to Centre Court before 1996 men’s final wearing only an apron

Richard Krajicek and Malivai Washington were about to start the 1996 Wimbledon final when Melissa Johnson, a student who was working as a catering assistant during the tournament, dashed on to Centre Court wearing nothing but an apron. While the streaker seemed to relax Krajicek, it had the opposite effect on Washington.

“I got flustered, and three sets later I was gone,” said Washington. A spokesman for the All England Club said: “While we do not condone the practice, it did provide some light entertainment for our loyal fans.”

Bjorn Borg needs a police escort as the girls go wild in 1973

Borg could tell you stories that would make Jilly Cooper blush. “When I first played in 1973, it was crazy,” Borg has recalled. “I was this young Swedish guy with long hair, and suddenly it went mad and there were girls everywhere.

"There were girls on the way to the practice court, girls by the match court, and girls in the lobby of my hotel.”

Borg needed a police escort to walk from the locker room to the courts. The following year the secretary of the All England Club wrote to the heads of the local girls’ schools asking them to keep their pupils under closer control.